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I’ve always been a positive person. I wake up feeling happy and look forward to seeing what the day is going to bring me (and what I will bring to it). If someone ever gave me a set of pajamas that say ‘Don’t Talk To Me Until I Have My Coffee’ they wouldn’t know me well at all. I like to think I am ‘realistically positive’. Not the type of positive that you want to kick in the teeth. There are things I find hard to be positive about – winter for one. There is a whole lot of ugly commentary that goes on in my head surrounding winter. But then I am able to move on from it as my it is my choice to live in a part of the world where winter happens. I remember going to my confirmation classes with our priest and one of the boys asked facetiously ‘Father, do I have to confess EVERY dirty thought I have?’ to which Father MacDonald replied ‘If you confessed you that you had 13 dirty thoughts today I would beat you and say I had 19’. Kind of like dirty thoughts – everyone has negative thoughts.

I’ve noticed something lately though and it is eating at my positive self. Media and social media has caused our society to become this cesspool of negativity. Trump consumed people for months and the media/people posted every awful thing he said or did. It was as if the world was ending. Post after post of hysteria. Police officers, drivers, developers, healthcare – no one is safe from this online judgement. Where I live there is the threat of a teachers strike right now. There is work to rule action in place – meaning that teachers are only doing what their contract binds them to do. It seems every other person is posting some awful accusation or critical viewpoint of teachers or the government. It is as if social media has given all of those ugly inner thoughts we have a place to be displayed and confessed. In the past it meant going over to someone’s house to talk or writing a letter to the paper or going to a public political meeting. It takes balls to get up in front of a group to speak publically about a criticism you may have and it takes skill to write a well crafted letter which the paper will print. It doesn’t take much courage or skill to post negative/critical comments online. In fact, any donkey or educated person (who statistically are actually the most critical) with an internet connection can do it. Just like the earlier mentioned dirty thoughts – not every thought you have needs to be confessed.

It is the holiday season. A time when we are historically especially stressed. And we all know what stress does: it brings those ugly-inner-critical-of-others-thoughts closer to the surface. We are rushing around searching for presents, getting groceries, travelling. Here are a few facts: it is going to be busy. The parking lot is going to be full. There are going to be lines. And if you’re travelling the airlines might lose your luggage. But what we must remember is that we are choosing to do whatever it is that we are doing. Set yourself up for success. Have a drink before you go. Go for a run. Get laid. Whatever it takes to get you into a good frame of mind. Don’t go to Costco at 2 pm on a Saturday.

I hope reading this has encouraged you to think before you speak, post or share. The fact is: teachers are people who also have children, politicians are people we voted into power, you’ve been the person who didn’t see the light turn green and should remember how jarring it is to have someone blare their horn at you, you’ve been helped by a police officer before and our healthcare system has saved the life of someone you love. I know you’re better than that. Come on team let’s look on the bright side of things. You’re alive. Use your input in a more powerful way.

Once upon a time I had a boss named Wayne (no idea if he reads this or not) and he always said “Good things are happening”! He was extraordinarily positive, had boundless energy and forced us to do push up competitions in our office. He was a pretty rare guy. I read the paper daily and most days I feel much worse when I finish it than when I started. Recently I wrote a letter to the editor daring them to report on “the good things happening” in our province. On that particular day the best part of the read was the obituaries; at least they told stories of love and the positive things people did with their lives. Why do we need to hear about losers like Rob Ford, Kim Kardashian and Mike Duffey over and over again?

In an effort to focus on the positive I want to share with you a story which recently has impacted me. I volunteer as a Doula. What is a Doula you say? Directly translated it means I am a servant to a labored woman! Basically I act as a support person to pregnant women who are in need of extra support. The program I volunteer through aims to support: low income families, single mothers and new comers to Canada. After returning from Africa in October I felt very impacted by my stay in Tanzania. Shortly after returning I received our monthly list of mothers needing support. On the list was a woman from Rwanda looking for support during the birth of her first baby. I immediately contacted our coordinator and said I would be most interested in helping her. We got all the paperwork done and shortly after I met “Sweet Marie” who has full of baby (due in only a few weeks) and her kind husband Tele. Over the course of the next few weeks I learned so much about them; their journey coming to Canada, their culture, the distinct differences between life in Canada and Rwanda, and of course their excitement for the birth of their baby. They have no family living here. It made me reflect on what it would be like for myself (or most anyone I know) to have their first baby – there would be showers, visitors, food offered and lots of general support. All they really have is each other. When visiting them I realized they were in need of many items for their baby. I decided to post on Facebook a request for anyone having baby items to spare to pass them over to me so that I could give them to this growing family. What happened next amazed me. I received (and still am receiving) so many items that I filled my car from top to bottom – Millie (my dog) had to sit on top of 3 boxes of diapers when I delivered the first load to them tonight. When I showed up at their door Marie’s mouth literally dropped as if she saw a ghost and she started to cry. I felt like Oprah when she would give viewers some crazy gift. This wasn’t anything crazy it was basic baby stuff, but to her it was as if I showed up with a million dollar cheque.

Last Monday the baby arrived after 4 (yes 4) days of labor. I was able to support them throughout this as it was very much out of Tele’s comfort zone (men do not attend births in their country and he felt very nervous to be alone during the process). Little baby Lina made her way into the world and my goodness is she ever beautiful. After losing 4 nights sleep and spending a week in the hospital due to a few minor complications I was concerned about her going home to be alone all day while her husband goes to work. A friend informed me of an amazing program at the IWK called EPS (Extra Parental Support) so I called and had them set up a visit from a volunteer once a week for 3 hours. Basically this volunteer will do anything Marie wants – care for the baby if she wants to take a nap, do laundry, visit, etc. Yesterday they came for the first time and she told me it was wonderful.

The purpose of this post is to hopefully inspire you to “make good things happen”. Honestly, it is way easier to make good thing happen than to make shitty things happen. We are so connected now that the click of a computer key gives you access to thousands of eyes. My father says that Facebook is “the most blatant display of insecurity he has ever seen” – for the most part I agree with him, but when used right it can “make good things happen”.

Through this process I have been: educated on another culture, made 3 new friends, further appreciate the amazing health care we have in Canada and made some “good things happen” with the help of many others.